YCN; Making ink.

I look into how you can make your own ink as this could be something we could experiment with depending on which direction the design work for our project goes. 

How to Make Recycled Ink From Fruits

http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com

Step 1: Purchase or harvest your fruits. Ideal ink candidates include blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, pokeberries, cherries, black currants, elderberries or sumac berries. Small, hard wild fruits such as rosehips, winterberries or juniper berries will likely not yield enough juice or will be too light to make effective ink.

Step 2: Mash fruit in a bowl or whirl them in a blender or food processor. If using cherries, you'll need to remove the pits first.

Step 3: Put a fine-mesh strainer inside a bowl or balance a smaller strainer on the rim of a bowl. Fill the strainer with fruit and any juice left from the mashing or chopping.

Step 4: Press the fruit pulp against the sides of the strainer with a spoon. If you use a wooden spoon, it may become stained permanently. Don't try to drain the fruit of all its juice. Forcing the juice from the skins of the fruits results in cloudiness, affecting the final product.

Step 5: Remove strainer and discard fruit pulp or set aside the pulp for another use.

Step 6:

Mix the vinegar and salt into the fruit juice. Vinegar and salt clarify and deepen the color of natural dye and ink products, as well as preserve the juice from spoilage.

Step 7: Pour the fruit ink into a small, wide-mouthed jar. Recycled and cleaned 2 oz. baby food jars or specialty jam jars are ideal.

http://www.howtodothings.com

1. Black Ink: There are several ways to make black ink; an easy one is: take one egg yolk, ½ teaspoon lamp black, ½ cup honey and one teaspoon gum arabic. Lamp black is available commercially or you can make it yourself by holding a plate or any receptacle over a lit candle, it will take some time to collect half a teaspoon though. Mix all the ingredients to make a thick paste, add enough water to this paste to dilute it for use such that it flows easily as a fluid.

1. Gall-Iron Ink: This method was the most frequently used method before synthetic chemicals came into use for ink manufacture. The one drawback of gall-iron ink is that it is very corrosive to steel and you should ensure that the implements you use while making or using this ink are not made of steel. You will require tannic acid, distilled water (wine or vinegar can be substituted), galls, solid gum arabic, and iron sulfate.
   The quantities required are 35 grams of tannic acid, 0.5 oz of gum arabic, 21 oz of iron sulfate, 8 oz of distilled water and galls. These can be gathered from woody areas where they can be found as circular growths on twigs or leaves typically around insect larvae on the tree or plant; tannic acid can be squeezed out of tea bags steeped in boiling water.
   Crush and grind the galls to a fine powder, add water and let the solution ferment for about three days. Strain the solution after three days, add the iron sulfate and let the solution stand again for four days. At the end of this period, mix in the gum arabic and ensure it is fully dissolved. The ink is now ready for use and can be stored, but not in anything made of steel.